Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ranger2007 Sep 14, 2008 14:18:18	I'm about to start a 4E campaign in a homebrew setting. It's a points of light setting taking place in a continent emerging from, essentially, the Dark Ages. The PCs will be a group of explorers hired by the guilds of their home city to explore the continent, facilitate trade opportunities, etc. I figure that almost anything can happen once they get out of their home city, and that I could fairly easily adapt published adventures for that. But I wanted their first adventure to take place in their home city, as a kind of audition. Unfortunately, I don't see there being a lot of opportunities for combat in their home city. I'm conceiving of the first adventure as a kind of scavenger hunt/race around the city, attempting to solve puzzles and obtain items faster than competing teams (frankly, it kind of reminds me a bit of The Amazing Race). There are only so many opportunities for, "Hey, there's a dungeon filled with monsters under Main Street. Go clear it out." Can anyone recommend a place I can find an adventure consisting primarily of puzzles, social encounters, and similar non-combat challenges? Thank you very much.
#2 Medriev Sep 14, 2008 15:40:21	Can't say that I've seen an adventure but the concept you have could be created using skill challenges. Several examples are given in the DMG but Dungeon has more that you could probably adapt fairly easily. You would also need to throw in the odd trap / obstacle and combat encounter (perhaps with urban menaces such as thieves, rats or other animals) for variety. Otherwise this should work well as a concept. Good luck!
#3 pugh_djinn Sep 14, 2008 16:13:52	I had a sidequest prepared and used last session that was actally described as epic despite having no combat or anything involved. The Paladin and Warlord/Paladin of Kord visited the city's temple of Kord. When they got there after a little banter the high priest mentioned he suspected the church of Melora of funding an Anti-kord play in the local theatre. He was told of a scene where Kord, the antagonist of the play is defeated by a priest of Melora. He then went on to say he'd ordered all good followers of Kord to not watch it. And further prompting he revealed he'd not watched it himself. The player dressed up. Hid their holy symbols and snuck into the playhouse. It was tense. Actually the play (which I made up) was called Tenser and the Disk Fish. And the play want as so... Tenser manages to cast his famous disk spell on a fish rather than himself and he rides it on an undersea adventure. Being at sea Kord sees him and tries to show him his power by using a thunderstorm but Tenser goes underwater and meets a priest of melora. Kord has little power under the sea so he asks a merman cleric of Kord to teach Tenser (the coward) a lesson for fleeing his storm. The cleric spends the play just one step behind his target until the climactic finish. The finale is a showdown between the priest of melora and the cleric of Kord. Kord intervenes before his cleric wins and he states that he was trying to test the Cleric not Tenser. He wanted to see if the cleric would follow blindly or stand up to his own god to prove he's not a coward, Kord couldn't find a legitimate way to test his undersea follower otherwise. Then they all live happily ever after. The look on my player's faces were priceless. They were expecting combat and stealth and yet they weren't disappointed at all. They explained to the high priest that the scene was grossly exaggerated and Kord was depicted well, even at the antagonist, and they completed the sidequest. They told me that the sidequest was epic whilst in my mind it was the most mundane side quest I could think of. As long as they liked it .